


Can't Impress a Merman By Howling

by thousandsunnies



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: First Meetings, Light Angst, M/M, Merman Stiles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-06
Updated: 2016-09-06
Packaged: 2018-08-13 10:03:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7972801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thousandsunnies/pseuds/thousandsunnies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek's arm was still waiting for a handshake when Styles - styles of what? - nicked his palm with his long and pointed fingernail. Derek pulled his hand back and looked at the blood trickling from his wound as it slowly healed. He couldn't believe that he and his uncle were doing so bad a job at their little number a while ago that the merman had the urge to cut him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Can't Impress a Merman By Howling

It happened again. They lost Isaac for the nth time. Isaac would, later on, argue that it was he who lost Derek and Peter. Still, it would not change the fact that after ten minutes of separation, Derek started getting worried. Derek could grumble all he wants, but Peter thought his nephew was being overly protective.

 

"Give it a rest. Isaac's just probably wrestling with a shark from miles away." Peter sat after a long walk looking for the younger beta, and leaned his back against a nearby coastal boulder.

 

Derek followed him but not willingly. "Gee, Peter, that mental image made it a lot better." He said with a tone flatter than the salt flat in Bolivia as he sat beside Peter and adjusted his cap. He knows that Isaac had grown stronger physically, mentally and emotionally since he was a newly-bitten teenage werewolf. Derek just didn't want Isaac to grow apart from him again, to think that his alpha didn't care, or that he was alone, but it was apparent that Derek was struggling to achieve the balance between a lenient alpha and a constricting alpha. He just want to find Isaac, damn it, and then the pack can set each others' terms and boundaries and Camaro driving schedules.

 

This was supposed to be a time for their pack to chill out at the beach, perhaps strengthen their bond a little more after the past formative months of their pack that had been unforgiving and fatal, but instead, everyone's off doing things separate from each other and Jackson's off to fucking London.

 

Peter, being the best uncle in his little book of Best Uncles, let Derek have his moment to brew his emotions and thoughts and drink them in slow steady sips. They sat in silence for a while before Peter started howling. Derek knew his uncle had a few screws loose, but, this was just, fucking what is it?

 

"Are you crying?"

 

"I'm singing. Wolfishly. I'm letting Isaac know we're here so he can follow my soothing voice back home." Peter said proudly. He wasn't even howling with the arresting voice of his wolf. He was using his human voice, and that was supposed to encourage Isaac to get back to shore or from wherever he might have gone off to? Isaac had most likely ran the opposite direction if he heard Peter's 'singing'. "Come on Derek, you should try it. Isaac might only be waiting for the call of his alpha."

 

Derek looked at Peter closely, his eyebrows drawn together as his uncle continued with more _ar- ar- arrooooo_.  He sniffed the air a little for traces of any intoxicating substance. He found none, and, it's not like Derek didn't know he was being played by Peter. But his uncle used to be one of his closest confidants when they were a lot younger and less damaged. Peter was the ring leader of their circle of mayhem when Laura was still very much alive and Cora being the all-around princess. Derek allowed himself to smile at those memories and thought he'd humor Peter just this time. What does he have to lose? Isaac, maybe, if he heard their awful-no-Derek-Peter-stop-I don't know you genre of howling coupled with the melodramatic closing of their eyes and shifting of their tones.

 

It was a few moments later when Derek heard someone came out of the ocean and trudged toward them. When he opened his eyes to see who was watching, he realized that not only were they being watched, but they were being watched by a very naked, partly shifted merman. Whether it was the embarrassment of being caught or the merman's state of undress that got Derek lost for words, Derek couldn't tell.

 

The merman looked pretty pissed. His golden brown eyes glowed visibly despite the bright early afternoon sun. He had pale skin, dotted with moles - Derek didn't know merfolks can have moles?! - and human legs only partially covered with golden scales. The rest of the merman laid bare for everyone to see.

 

Thankfully there weren't any people at the beach aside from them, Derek thought. He felt his eye muscles getting strained by making the effort of stopping himself from examining further just how soaked and bare the merman was. Instead, he let himself get lost in those angry, but extremely captivating eyes. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard Peter still howling. That was when he patted Peter and made his uncle stop and look. Derek awkwardly waved at the merman and tried to strike up a conversation, "Hi, hey-"

 

"Oh my god I thought a seal was dying! And I was in the middle of rubbing Nicholas' belly!" The merman interrupted what would be Derek's series and variations of the word hi.

 

Peter didn't look like he was bothered that they were being confronted by a fellow shapeshifter who doesn't have a lot for body covering except some scales and seawater running down from his brown hair to his webbed toes. Peter would admit, though, he was slightly annoyed for being interrupted. He was about to belt out a powerful chorus had Derek not stopped him. Clearly, the merman didn't appreciate what they were doing. "I'm sorry, we were just uh-"

 

"Yeah, we're both sorry. I'm Derek," Derek stood up abruptly and held out his hand but his mind wandered back to what the merman just said, "Who's Nicholas?"

 

The merman stared at Derek's eyes, then his extended hand, then scanned him from head to toe and back to his eyes. "Well, Derek, my name is Stiles, and Nicholas is my best bud next to Scott. He is the most magnificent shark in all of the Pacific Ocean, no, make that the entire world's oceans. He deserves all the accolades and adoration. Scott said Allison was the best because she came from a family of numbfishes, but I told him his fins were all over Allison these days, he doesn't know if he's having an orgasm or having his brain fried through electrocution. But then," the merman paused his word vomit and continued to eye Derek warily.

 

Derek's mind was spinning because of what the merman - Styles? - just said. He named his shark 'Nicholas?' There's a Scott and an Allison too? Why did it sound like they were having a pretty kinky, possibly deadly, sex?

 

Derek's arm was still waiting for a handshake when Styles - styles of what? - nicked his palm with his long and pointed fingernail. Derek pulled his hand back and looked at the blood trickling from his wound as it slowly healed. He couldn't believe that he and his uncle were doing so bad a job at their little number a while ago that the merman had the urge to cut him. Derek noticed that the merman licked the blood that his nail got from Derek. That was kind of hot, actually.

 

"I knew it!" Stiles exclaimed coming to a realization, "Your wolfling came too close to Nicholas! Nicholas said he tried to shoo your wolfling away, but your wolfling was not having it, so Nicholas bit him. And now he had a tummy ache 'cause of your wolfling's blood!" Stiles pointed at him accusingly.

 

"Wait, you mean Isaac?" Derek asked incredulously. Isaac would never be foolish enough to- oh wait, there he was.

 

"I'm here. Ugh. Sorry, I was just trying to pet him. It looked easy on NatGeo." Peter saw Isaac limping towards them. Isaac's left arm and leg were visibly dislocated, full of scratches and bleeding. Peter ran up to his side to help Isaac walk closer to Derek and Stiles. From the looks of it, Nicholas didn't feel particularly fond of Isaac's approach.

 

"Your pet did this to Isaac?" Derek had a little trouble modulating his voice and restraining his ire. Stiles was obviously an attractive merman even without the proverbial hypnotizing serenade most folktales would say. Still, he only met him not more than 5 minutes ago. There was a blood-thicker-than-water principle manifesting here, even if it was an overly-friendly blood versus a mesmerizing-with-hints-of-golden-caramel water.

 

"Okay, first of all, Nicholas is not a pet. How dare you! He's my best friend. Second, your wolfling scared away Nicholas' snacks. How would you feel if you're in the middle of hunting and then I suddenly run towards you screaming?" Stile stepped into Derek's space dangerously close. Daring, golden brown eyes stared into an alpha werewolf's red ones, slightly scared, yes, but he's defending his friend's honor. Let it not be said that Derek turned down a merman's challenge for he, too, took a step closer to Stiles.

 

Sensing the hostile and uncomfortably intimate mood, Peter helped Isaac maneuver back to their beach house several yards away, where Boyd and Erica were done doing what Derek probably wished he would be doing with the merman sometime in the future if Peter's sense of smell could tell him anything from his nephew's current state. Boyd and Erica would, later on, take credit for driving Derek out of the beach house and into Stile's scaly embrace. When Isaac would ask them if they'd also take the blame for him getting gnawed by a great white, Erica would say, "Nah, that's 'cause you're a dumdum."

 

Derek closed his eyes for a couple of seconds and breathed in the scent of the sea creature before him. He slowly opened his eyes and breathed out, "I would probably go after you instead. Maybe rip your throat out with my teeth." He smiled smugly and showcased his fangs to Stiles. "But, that would make the worst first date of my life so let's just keep it bloodless. I can cook a mean shrimp scampi." Derek's blood red eyes went back to ocean green, his smile small and surprisingly shy compared to a while ago.

 

Stile's too had mellowed down. His nails retracted and eyes no longer glowing. He noticed how close he was to the werewolf. When he looked down, they were practically chest-to-chest.

 

The long silence was what Derek got after his proposal. The waves were crashing and there were seagull cries all around them, but all Derek was tuned into was Stiles's rapidly beating heart and his apparent lack of response. Derek stepped back, losing confidence, but Stiles was quick to grab Derek's hand, the one he just wounded. Derek observed Stiles as the merman ran his fingers over Derek's larger and scar-free palm.

 

"I do like shrimps, but I don't know what scampis are," Stiles said softly, looking up at Derek with inquiring eyes.

 

"Tell you what, you can catch anything you want and I'll cook it for you," Derek said, voice slightly trembling with excitement and disbelief that such a creature would take a step into the world a lot different than his own just to spend some time with a werewolf.

 

Stiles had a few cooked foods that fell from large boats and drifted into the ocean. He didn't like those very much since he preferred his meal raw and full of life, but he would like to give Derek's shrimp scampi a chance. Scampi is a funny surface word, Stiles thought to himself. He might say it over and over again for the next 24 hours. Stiles gave Derek an affirmative, "It's a date. I'll bring shrimps."

 

When Derek suggested they meet again the following day when the sun touches the horizon, Stiles suggested "so 5-6ish? What, you don't think waterproof watches sink uselessly down to the ocean floor, do you?"

 

Derek apologized again, for their bad singing and for Isaac interrupting Stile's friend's mealtime. Stiles forgave him with a promise of properly introducing Nicholas to Isaac next time. They both parted with a plan to meet the following day. Derek thought that Isaac might have just secured a permanent weekend spot on the Camaro driver's seat.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! :D If anything sounded off or awkward, please let me know and I'll fix it. :)
> 
> For anyone wondering about what numbfishes are, they're a type of [electric stingrays](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narcinidae). Also, this fic was inspired by [this video](http://scruffysterek.tumblr.com/post/149998890275/ianbohen-just-getting-a-little-practice) of Hoech and Bobo's howling. Thank you, scruffysterek! :D You may not now me but your post made this fic possible! :D


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